IN OUR OPINION

Editorial: A part of the dream unfulfilled

Published: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 at 9:55 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 at 9:55 p.m.

As the decades have passed and the event's historical significance has been cemented, simply saying "The March on Washington" is enough to bring to mind the powerful speech delivered that day by Martin Luther King Jr.

As Wednesday's 50th anniversary approached, the event's full name has been used more and more frequently: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

As the full name has sometimes been forgotten throughout the years, so have the other speeches that day and their focus on economic equality. And though there is little dispute today of the righteousness of the cause of ending Jim Crow laws, the fight for economic justice remains controversial and pressing.

Closing the income and wealth gap for minorities remains one of the unfinished goals of the march. Today the median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households, according to the Pew Research Center.

Though King's "I Have a Dream" speech is the best-remembered part of that transformational day, the nine other speeches delivered that day included calls for jobs and a living wage.

As John Lewis, 23 years old at the time and now a U.S. congressman, said at the event: "We march today for jobs and freedom, but we have nothing to be proud of, for hundreds and thousands of our brothers are not here — for they are receiving starvation wages or no wages at all."

Lewis' words still resonate. After adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage today of $7.25 is worth $2 less than the minimum wage in 1968 ¬— not even close to a living wage, the Economic Policy Institute reports in its assessment of progress since the march.

A full-time worker in 2011 needed to earn $11.06 an hour to keep a family of four out of poverty.

The insufficient minimum wage is getting overdue attention with a national series of protests scheduled to arrive today in Tampa. Workers at fast-food restaurants and other low-wage jobs are asking to be paid a minimum of $15 an hour and for the right to form a union without retaliation. That $15-an-hour rate is clearly unrealistic, but the need to hike the minimum wage to a livable standard is not.

Income inequality is a problem that affects all races, threatening the basic assumptions of our country.

The Horatio Alger "rags to riches" tale is exposed as a lie when the United States leads the industrial world in the percentage of low-wage jobs.

Nearly 25 percent of the workforce makes less than two-thirds of the national median hourly wage, the Center for Economic and Policy Research reports.

So as King's monumental work on racial equality is remembered this week, it should not be forgotten that he was also concerned with economic equality.

King's speech ends with the stirring "I Have a Dream" section, but in the beginning he talks about black Americans a century after the end of slavery still living on "a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."

Fifty years later, that part of his speech sadly still applies to too many Americans.

<p>As the decades have passed and the event's historical significance has been cemented, simply saying "The March on Washington" is enough to bring to mind the powerful speech delivered that day by Martin Luther King Jr.</p><p>As Wednesday's 50th anniversary approached, the event's full name has been used more and more frequently: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.</p><p>As the full name has sometimes been forgotten throughout the years, so have the other speeches that day and their focus on economic equality. And though there is little dispute today of the righteousness of the cause of ending Jim Crow laws, the fight for economic justice remains controversial and pressing.</p><p>Closing the income and wealth gap for minorities remains one of the unfinished goals of the march. Today the median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households, according to the Pew Research Center.</p><p>Though King's "I Have a Dream" speech is the best-remembered part of that transformational day, the nine other speeches delivered that day included calls for jobs and a living wage.</p><p>As John Lewis, 23 years old at the time and now a U.S. congressman, said at the event: "We march today for jobs and freedom, but we have nothing to be proud of, for hundreds and thousands of our brothers are not here — for they are receiving starvation wages or no wages at all."</p><p>Lewis' words still resonate. After adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage today of $7.25 is worth $2 less than the minimum wage in 1968 ¬— not even close to a living wage, the Economic Policy Institute reports in its assessment of progress since the march.</p><p>A full-time worker in 2011 needed to earn $11.06 an hour to keep a family of four out of poverty.</p><p>The insufficient minimum wage is getting overdue attention with a national series of protests scheduled to arrive today in Tampa. Workers at fast-food restaurants and other low-wage jobs are asking to be paid a minimum of $15 an hour and for the right to form a union without retaliation. That $15-an-hour rate is clearly unrealistic, but the need to hike the minimum wage to a livable standard is not.</p><p>Income inequality is a problem that affects all races, threatening the basic assumptions of our country.</p><p>The Horatio Alger "rags to riches" tale is exposed as a lie when the United States leads the industrial world in the percentage of low-wage jobs.</p><p>Nearly 25 percent of the workforce makes less than two-thirds of the national median hourly wage, the Center for Economic and Policy Research reports.</p><p>So as King's monumental work on racial equality is remembered this week, it should not be forgotten that he was also concerned with economic equality.</p><p>King's speech ends with the stirring "I Have a Dream" section, but in the beginning he talks about black Americans a century after the end of slavery still living on "a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."</p><p>Fifty years later, that part of his speech sadly still applies to too many Americans.</p>